The Gentleman Test

It happened early on in my reporting life. We had the governor in for an editorial board meeting. We were questioning him, and he was being evasive on a particular issue. So, I pressed the governor – pressed him hard.

I cut him off in his evasive responses, interrupted him repeatedly, ultimately boxed him into a corner, got a candid answer and felt pretty pleased with myself. When the governor left, the editor of the newspaper, a very smart and extremely tough guy named John McMullan, took me aside.

“The answer you got to that question is the lead of the story,” he told me, “and good for you. But you need to learn how to be more respectful – not necessarily of the man, but of the office. You need to learn how to do the same thing you did, but with a smile and with more delicacy. He is the governor, after all.”

At age 25, I learned a good lesson that day. It apparently was a lesson that Mitt Romney, a 65-year-old corporate executive used to pushing people around, never learned. In his debate last night with President Obama, Romney was too often rude and not sufficiently respectful of the office. He was right to press Obama. He was wrong to do it by trying to talk over him, by cutting him off and by behaving in a contemptuous manner toward him.

In the vice presidential debate, Joe Biden was faulted for ridiculing Paul Ryan. Last night, Mitt Romney sneered openly at the President of the United States and did everything he could think of to bully him.

Neither guy in last night’s second presidential debate offered a clear vision of the future – of what they would do to stimulate this wheezing economy. Maybe that’s because nobody worldwide has come up with a good idea on how to speed up this slow, agonizing economic recovery. Neither guy had good answers on any number of points. It was obvious that they dislike one another personally. It was obvious that each guy was determined to dominate the event.

Who won? Obama won last night’s event on Long Island not so much on content but on the basis of style. The Republican base surely loved watching Romney diss Barack Obama, whom they hate so intensely, but Romney already has the votes of that crowd. He now needs the undecided moderates, who aren’t motivated by that sort of hatred.

My guess is that the final post-debate polls, like the flash ones we’re seeing today, will show that Romney didn’t get us with those tactics. My guess also is that he hurt himself with women by trying so cavalierly to roll over CNN’s Candy Crowley, the moderator.

The questions from that crowd of supposedly undecided voters generally were slow pitches, as is usually the case in these town hall formats. That’s why debates like this are of only limited utility in trying to determine who to vote for. Nobody asked either guy why he won’t work to break up the big banks that brought down our economy. Nobody asked either guy specifically what he would do if Iran refuses to back down on building its nuclear bomb.

Nobody pointed out the one major reason gas prices are skyrocketing is that this country uses 22 per cent of the world’s oil every year while we have less than 2 per cent of the world’s proven oil reserves. We produce about 9 per cent of the world’s oil annually because we’re good at sucking it out of the ground, but we’re only 4.5 per cent of the world’s population. That’s why we must develop renewable sources of energy. Nobody dealt with that in any serious way or with how to preserve Social Security or Medicare over the long haul.

Debates like this do, however, give you some sense of the personal style of these guys – how they view certain matters, how they think them through, how they respond to challenges to both to their authority and opinions. It’s always tougher for the challenger because of the respect and deference due the office of President. Romney’s challenge last night was to make his points and to do it like a gentleman.